A senior Hamilton doctor with no plans to retire has urged the best medical students to become GPs, amid a serious shortage in the field.
When Dr Marie-Anne Hockings was a student, "they used to say you shouldn't train girls to do medicine because they'd just go off and have babies".
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said last November that three in 10 GPs intend to retire by 2028.
Dr Hockings, 68, who has been a doctor for 46 years, said "we are desperately in need of more GPs".
As well as being a GP, Dr Hockings is a senior lecturer at the University of Newcastle.
She's been teaching students for more than 40 years.
"Years ago it was about showing them you could have a great medical career as a woman," she said.
"Nowadays that's not so much of an issue. It's more trying to point out that you can have a great career as a GP.
"I'm trying to encourage the best students to do general practice."
Dr Hockings said being a GP was the field in which "you could have the biggest impact on people's lives".
"You share long-term meaningful relationships with diverse people, who you might never normally meet," she said.
"It gives you a sense of perspective."
For a decade, she delivered babies as a GP obstetrician at John Hunter Hospital.
"Now those babies are grown up and I'm seeing them as parents," she said.
"The people who were middle-aged when I started are now elderly. It gives a lovely sense of time and connection."
Dr Hockings was last week named outstanding general practitioner of the year at the Australian Patients Association Awards in Melbourne.
Her award attracted more than 2100 nominations.
"This says a lot about people's relationships with their GPs - that so many people thought their GP worthy of a national award," she said.
"General practice is the backbone of the healthcare system.
"Unfortunately, Medicare rebates haven't kept pace with wages and the cost of running a practice, making it harder to bulk-bill."
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data released this week showed bulk billing for GP attendances in Newcastle fell from 94 per cent to 75 per cent over 30 years.
Dr Hockings felt that federal policies over numerous years meant "we are ending up with a two-tier system in health and education".
"Our Medicare rebates should enable everybody to be bulk-billed or pay a token amount," she said.
"Similarly, our public schools should be so good that no one needs to go to a private school.
"I'm very wedded to the idea of doing as much for patients as cheaply as possible. I see a lot of underprivileged people."
In her early years as a doctor, she imagined she'd be "barefoot under a tarpaulin in Biafra somewhere".
"I had no idea how much adventure and excitement there could be doing general medicine a couple of kilometres from where I grew up."
She has several jobs in medicine.
While her day job is at Hamilton Doctors as a GP, on Wednesdays she does high-risk endocrine antenatal care at John Hunter Hospital.
She also does GP Access After Hours in the evening and forensic medicine for the sexual assault service.
And in general practice, she works with patients prescribed methadone and buprenorphine [a synthetic opioid].
"I've been doing that since the late '90s. You realise that the doctor-patient relationship is a big part of the therapy.
"As the doctor you expand their world, and as the patient they expand my world.
"My methadone patients have opened my eyes and taught me a lot."
In her work in the drug and alcohol field, she's observed the rise of medicinal cannabis.
"The criminalisation of cannabis is ridiculous. That's my personal opinion," she said.
"In terms of medical cannabis, it's very variable. You find a lot of people say it's expensive, tastes bad and does nothing except make them a bit foggy-headed.
"However, I do know people who have had big trouble with benzodiazepines and opioids and major anxiety. The medicinal marijuana has just clicked for them."
